Citizen

From [[w:c:Ikariam|WikIkariam]]

Citizens are the people that live in your town. Together they form your population. You can see your town's current and maximum population by going into the Town Hall view, as well as on the Main Menu of the User Interface. They work to produce goods and pay taxes to give you gold - they are the heart of your town.

[edit] Income

A 'free' idle citizen increases your income by 4 per hour. A working citizen has no overall affect on your funds, but produces goods (see below). However, a scientist decreases your income by 8 gold per hour. A town with a growing population will therefore see rises in income if its citizens are not put to work immediately.

[edit] Employment

Citizens can be free or used in the Saw Mill, Crystal Mine, Vineyard, quarry, and Sulphur Pit. At the base rate, one citizen can produce one wood/hour and two citizens produce one luxury resource/hour.

When using Helping Hands any resources produced by overloading citizens require 4 times more citizens. Hence, four citizens over the limit can produce one wood/hour and eight citizens over the limit produce one luxury resource/hour.

Citizens can also be employed in the military, as spies in a Hideout or as researchers in an Academy.

Establishing a new colony requires sending 40 citizens to as its initial population.

[edit] Growth

Main Article: Happiness

Growth rate is determined by the happiness score of a town; generally, a higher happiness to citizen ratio gives a higher population growth rate. Without increasing the happiness score, each additional citizen slightly decreases the population growth rate until a growth rate of zero is reached.

A local tavern or museum can raise the happiness its town. A high growth rate leads to a higher number of citizens, allowing you to gather more resources per hour which is highly desirable. This can in itself, however be quite costly. The maximum number of citizens at any one time (whether working or not) is limited by the level of the town hall. You can also increase your maximum population by researching Well digging and Holiday - each of these increase your maximum population by 50.